Jeb Bush is exploring a 2016 presidential bid. The former Florida governor said in a post on Facebook Tuesday that over the Thanksgiving holiday there was a lot of discussion about the future of the nation. “As a result of these conversations and thoughtful consideration of the kind of strong leadership I think America needs, I have decided to actively explore the possibility of running for President of the United States,” Mr. Bush said. Mr. Bush said he plans to establish a Leader PAC next month to “help me facilitate conversations with citizens across America to discuss the most critical...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Tuesday took a strong stance against President Barack Obama’s nominee to head the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, calling the nomination “insulting to law enforcement officers everywhere.” Cruz’s opposition to Debo Adegbile’s nomination stems from the man’s time with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. During that time, Adegbile volunteered to advocate for Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of murdering Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981. As Townhall’s Katie Pavlich notes, attorneys with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund were able to get Abu-Jamal’s death sentence overturned. “Mr. President, this is insulting to law enforcement officers...

And why is that? Because it's beginning to dawn on me that Jeb Bush is probably going to be the Republican Party's nominee for president in 2016. Consider: With the ongoing implosion of Chris Christie's political career, the GOP establishment has lost its best hope for a candidate who could stop a libertarian-populist insurgency during the primaries. Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Scott Walker — the list of viable fire-breathers is longer (and less dominated by incompetents, crazies, and one-note sideshow acts) than establishment types would like.

Questions are being raised about whether an Oscar nomination was rescinded because of the film’s faith-based message. The low-budget film “Alone Yet Not Alone” was nominated in the Best Song category, but then the song, also called “Alone Yet Not Alone,” was disqualified a few weeks later. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences pointed out that the song’s creator, Bruce Broughton, had improperly emailed 70 fellow Academy members to ask them to listen to the song. …

Senator Marco Rubio withdrew his support for Judge William Thomas’ nomination Tuesday to the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Florida despite having backed the nomination more than 10 months ago, according to the New York Times. For confirmation to move forward, a nominee must have support from both United States senators in their home state. Senator Rubio said he was concerned about two decisions in cases made by Judge Thomas. If Thomas had been confirmed to the court, he would have been the first openly gay black judge on the federal bench. Rubio said he was concerned...

You can get agreement from almost all points on the political spectrum that the worst aspect of our political system is the presidential nomination process. It is perhaps no coincidence that it is the one part of the system not treated in the Constitution. That’s because the Founding Fathers abhorred political parties and hoped that presidents would be selected by something like an elite consensus. But we have political parties, the oldest and third-oldest in the world, and they are not going away. Surely a better system is possible. The current system of primaries, caucuses, and national conventions is the...

A group of congressional Republican lawmakers say the way President Barack Obama's labor secretary nominee handled three housing discrimination lawsuits against the city of St. Paul should be enough to block his confirmation. The central case, Magner v. Gallagher, involved St. Paul landlords who claimed that the city overreached with its strict housing inspections, which had the serious consequence of reducing the amount of affordable housing available to racial minorities. St. Paul officials, congressional Democrats and the Justice Department are dismissing the GOP's latest claims as politics as usual, but a 63-page report issued Sunday is certain to amplify discussions...

WASHINGTON -- Former senator Chuck Hagel is a suave, energetic, spirited fellow. He is intelligent, and from his early youth apparently patriotic and undoubtedly courageous. He showed that in Vietnam. Hagel has been a Republican senator and an accomplished businessman. Now he is President Barack Obama's nominee for secretary of defense. Because he is President Obama's nominee for secretary of defense he is attracting dutiful scrutiny, and that is all to the good. This is not your ordinary presidency. In domestic policy and foreign policy President Obama is showing every indication of attempting to be an epochal president (with four...

It should be interesting, the confirmation hearings on the nomination of Charles Hagel to be the next secretary of defense of the United States. . . A lot more interesting than the hearings on John Kerry's nomination as secretary of state or John Brennan's nomination as director of the Central Intelligence Agency. There may have been a time when those nominations were supposed to be controversial, but compared to the choice of Chuck Hagel as secretary of defense, both look like cinches to sail through the confirmation process. . . Mr. Hagel's qualifications to head the Defense Department begin with...

Biography isn't policy. President Obama's choice for secretary of defense, Chuck Hagel, former Nebraska Republican senator, has a resume most politicians can envy: a clean senatorial record, no ethical lapses and two purple hearts from a war many opposed and many more tried to avoid. Some think Hagel's 2006 comment about "the Jewish lobby" should disqualify him, believing it a code word for anti-Semitic sentiments. There is nothing wrong with criticizing the policies of any Israeli government. Israelis likely do this more than foreigners. It's just that Jews are rightly sensitive to the use of words like these because it...

It's official. President Obama has named former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) as his nominee for secretary of defense. Hence, we may be in store for the worst defense secretary nomination fight since George H.W. Bush's failed appointment of Sen. John Tower (R-Texas) more than 20 years ago. The interesting question is, why? Why waste the political capital? Why pass over more qualified candidates who would sail through confirmation, including Michele Flournoy -- who'd be the first female defense secretary? The most ridiculous answer is among the mainstream media's favorites: bipartisanship. According to Politico, the choice "appeals to Obama's bipartisan spirit."...

Prior to President Obama's first inauguration in 2009, a controversy erupted over reports that he intended to appoint John Brennan as CIA director. That controversy, in which I participated, centered around the fact that Brennan, as a Bush-era CIA official, had expressly endorsed Bush's programs of torture (other than waterboarding) and rendition and also was a vocal advocate of immunizing lawbreaking telecoms for their role in the illegal Bush NSA eavesdropping program. As a result, Brennan withdrew his name from consideration, issuing a bitter letter blaming "strong criticism in some quarters prompted by [his] previous service with the" CIA. This...

A top Jewish leader said that former senator Chuck Hagel is likely to be nominated by the White House for the position of Defense Secretary on Monday, according to audio of an interview with a Jewish radio show obtained by The Algemeiner. “It’s most likely that on Monday they will announce that Hagel will be the choice,” said Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice President of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, an umbrella group that represents 50 of America’s largest Jewish organizations, to Jewish talk show host Zev Brenner. The interview took place on Saturday night. While some...

Gotta love Louis Gohmert. He stuck his neck out and nominated former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to replace Boehner as Speaker of the House today. Sadly, not a single Republican seconded the motion and it died. And so did our hopes of ousting Boehner: THE HILL – Former Speaker and failed presidential candidate Newt Gingrich was nominated for the position of Speaker on Wednesday by conservative Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-Texas). There was no second. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) was nominated for another term by sometime-rival Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.). Boehner in turn nominated Cantor.

I think it’s worth asking whether it really is too late to put a conservative on the ballot for president. Look, we all KNOW that O-Zero’s attacks on Romney are complete BS. But Romney has shown he isn’t able to stand up to it. He looks weak and defensive. So, maybe this is an opening for us. Romney cannot really just drop out of the race. That would be insane. But he could be asked to let the convention make the call about whether he should move forward. Conservatives could ask him to release his delegates to vote their consciences....

BALTIMORE – A doctor who ran against Mitt Romney for Massachusetts governor a decade ago won the chance to challenge him again on Saturday, this time as the Green Party's presidential nominee. Jill Stein, 62, an internist from Lexington, Massachusetts., blasted both Romney and President Barack Obama, saying both had become too dependent on donations from corporations in order to acquire office at the expense of the nation's citizens. "We need real public servants who listen to the people -- not to the corporate lobbyists that funnel campaign checks into the big war chests," Stein told applauding supporters at a...

Undaunted by a GOP primary that is effectively over, Rep. Ron Paul’s supporters are now working to take over state Republican parties and delegations to the Republican National Convention this summer. This weekend, Mr. Paul’s backers effectively captured the Alaska GOP, won the Louisiana caucuses and beat out delegates picked by Mitt Romney in Massachusetts, the presumptive nominee’s home state.

It was inevitable. Mitt Romney is going to sell-out conservatives in his party in order to win the general. And if he wins, he'll sell them out again in order to be re-elected.* Zeke Miller and McKay Coppins reporting for Buzzfeed have found the first issue on which Romney is trying to put some distance between himself and the conservative wing of his party. Allahpundit, one of the most perceptive conservative bloggers, also detects the hint of conflict between the GOP candidate and the GOP Congress. Mitt Romney told reporters today that he supports efforts to extend low interest rates...

...is there life after the Leftists take over? We have been operating under the rule of "Lesser of Two Evils" for decades. I have agreed with it. I now stop to ask folks who have been doing the same thing, has our nation grown stronger over those decades? At some point we have to be honest with ourselves. For me, the answer is a clear, "No." I can't answer for you, but there are many people out there who understand exactly where I'm coming from? Instead of saying people who continue to do this are wrong, I want to give...

I just stumbled upon an accurate column on the Democrat’s ACTUAL view upon a Romney nomination titled “Democrats Have No Fear Of Romney” (linked at blog) It provides a rare glimpse behind the scenes of the Obama campaign’s TRUE view of the prospects of a Mitt Romney nomination. It demonstrates that they understand that Mitt Romney cannot beat Barack Obama and only –events- can defeat him if Romney is the nominee. In essence, Romney –is- the “bag of rocks” candidate because he brings absolutely nothing to the election that could legitimately be considered as marketable in the most anti-Wall Street...

While it’s clear that regional variations have played a role thus far in the Republican primaries — with Mitt Romney doing well in the Northeast but not in the South, for example — breaking down the contests along other lines might help shed some additional light on the race. It’s perhaps interesting to compare how Romney has done in each of five groupings of contests: the five states that have the largest percentage of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Nevada, and Arizona); all other swing states (Colorado, Iowa, New Hampshire, Florida, Ohio,...

Romney is on track to win the nomination when the primaries and caucuses are over on June 6th. Currently, Romney has 498 of the 1,144 he needs to be nominated. He now has 53% of the selected delegates, a clip he has been maintaining since the start of the process. Santorum has 25%, Gingrich 15%, and Paul 7%.

SAN JUAN, P.R. — The pickup truck that carried him through Iowa is long gone, replaced by a small motorcade of S.U.V.’s. There was a police escort, and a phalanx of Secret Service agents. The sweater vest was gone, at least for the day, and Rick Santorum, the winner of the last two presidential primaries, was smartly turned out, in a dark suit and power tie, when he held a half-hour private meeting with Gov. Luis G. Fortuńo of Puerto Rico.The two men did not take questions from reporters, but allowed photographers to capture the moment. With the cameras whirring,...

What is it about the pundits that they can’t seem to get that WE, the American People, have no problem with a “brokered” Convention for the GOP? Why are they so afraid of allowing this process? I just heard Dick Morris declare that we NEED a candidate, asking principled people to just “vote for Romney!” Not because he is the best person, but because he, Dick Morris, believes we need to short circuit the process, and, in the process, disenfranchise the very people we will need to vote for our eventual candidate. Way to get out the vote, Dick! We...

Santorum Strong in Kansas Rick Santorum looks set for a comfortable lead in the state of Kansas, which holds its caucuses Saturday with 40 delegates up for grabs. "We chased all the candidates out of Kansas!" Santorum said Friday. Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich have skipped the state to focus on Alabama and Mississippi, with their primaries on Tuesday. Santorum is expected to win the state even though Bob Dole, the former GOP presidential candidate from Kansas, endorsed Romney earlier this week.

DALLAS, Texas - Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said Thursday that President Obama wants more young adults to go to college so they can undergo "indoctrination" to a secular world view. In an hour-long interview with conservative television host Glenn Beck, Santorum also defended his record on abortion and his vote in favor of President George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind education law. On the president's efforts to boost college attendance, Santorum said, "I understand why Barack Obama wants to send every kid to college, because of their indoctrination mills, absolutely ... The indoctrination that is going on at...

Rick Santorum drew applause from Ohio tea party voters - but perhaps raised some eyebrows, too - when he suggested Saturday that President Barack Obama leads based on a theology different from that in the Bible. It left some wondering whether he was implying that Obama subscribes to a religion other than Christianity. The comments came at an event in Columbus shortly after the former senator from Pennsylvania said efficacy and safety improvements in oil drilling technology are considered by the president to be "a dangerous technology." "It doesn't fit his pattern of trying to drive down consumption, trying to...

The man being prayed over in the picture is Rick Santorum, stunning winner of three primaries or caucuses last Tuesday in Colorado, Missouri and Minnesota. It's been instructive watching the media, even the Wall Street Journal, grapple with the possibility that this clean, morally-upright, scandal-free, principled, self-sacrificial, family-basked, God-loving, humanitarian, intelligent, well educated, experienced, thoughtful, conservative, Republican man might emerge as the Republican Party's presidential nominee in 2012. He may not be glib enough, or slick enough, or sexy enough to lead the nation. And, some things are simply beyond the pale, like believing in the efficacy of prayer, or...

PLANO, Texas — Standing in front of a massive crowd at a rally in Plano, Texas, Rick Santorum unleashed criticism of Barack Obama and threw out some campaign red meat to supporters hungry for it, telling them the president has an “overt hostility to faith.”“(He’s) trying to weaken them, churches, trying to say that anybody who believes in the values of the Judeo Christian policies,” Santorum said to about 2,000 people in a converted barn, one of his largest audiences of the campaign. He told the audience at the raucous rally that Obama is restricting religious freedoms in this country,...

I don't know about you, but so far this election year is just not anywhere near the fun as I thought it was going to be... getting screwed-over and treated like a pestering child has a way of ruining things every time. And sure never expected Team Romney and the GOP old-guard to be adopting the tactics of the Left to destroy all in Mittens' path, not to the degree we've seen: I long-ago had my fill of the heinous character assassinations after the MSM/RNC team job on Sarah Palin, but what they've done to Newt Gingrich -a man who's done...

As God is my witness, I will not let the media, the Republican establishment, David Axelrod various billionaires or any other vested interest, choose the nominee of my party, the GOP. If we loose in Florida, we'll fight in every primary and caucus all the way to Tampa though multiple ballots, until we have a nominee that will bring the fight to Barack Obama. We will nominate a man or woman who can clearly and artfully defend the concepts of individual sovereignty, natural rights and the objective morality of economic freedom. Because to the Left (and the Republican establishment: McCain...

In the end, the facts won't matter. The discussion of who is more vulnerable, who has the most or least baggage in the general election, whose history will hurt him more or less, whether Bain or the Fannie Mae situation will provide more fodder to the Democrats' political machine won't matter, even though we like to pretend they will. The Democrats are already engaged in a scorched-earth slaughter-fest, and the media acts as their advocate and champion; nuances of this or that that we Republicans spend time debating will have no place in the lead-up to the November election. In...

Realizing that most Americans certainly won’t care what I think, nevertheless, I am hereby endorsing Newt Gingrich for President. Of the remaining candidates for the Republican nomination, Gingrich is the only one who will fight to restore our country with the same degree of passion he gives to winning the presidency. This past week, I have been appalled at the Republican Establishment’s coordinated attacks on former Speaker Newt Gingrich. Their “schlock and awe” campaign has been unkind, unfair, untrue, and unprincipled.

Dear Mitt: In this year's contest for the Republican nomination, you have demonstrated your ruthlessness. Your attacks on fellow Republicans have show that you are willing to be as brutal, vile, and remorseless as is necessary to defeat your opponent. Presumably, this is how you made $200 million in about 12 years at Bain. In 2008 and now in 2012 you have left a field of wounded warriors in your wake: Huckabee, Giulianni and now Newt. We can see you are willing to be as dirty and nasty as you need to be to win. But the question remains, will...

"He is simply the guy the news media likes to talk about." "Only a Reagan conservative can unite Republicans to beat President Barack Obama in November." Former House Speaker Gingrich on MSNBC yesterday: (highlights mine) 'I think what's really striking about last night is three out of four Republicans once again repudiated Mitt Romney. Here is a guy that's spent millions of dollars campaigning in Iowa for five years and he has a ceiling of 25% .So when people talk about electability, how can you take seriously somebody after that kind of a campaign with that amount of money just flattens...

KNOXVILLE, Iowa – Even before votes are cast here, movement conservatives across the country are beginning to fear that 2012 will be a replay of the last GOP presidential primary: conservatives divided between candidates, enabling a center-right contender to march up the middle and claim the nomination. Time is running short on activist Republicans who have long yearned for a unifying Mitt Romney alternative in the race – leading some to worry that if they don’t stop him in Iowa on Tuesday, they may not be able to stop him at all. Rick Santorum’s late surge in Iowa, coupled with...

"A good portion of the right-wing punditocracy, Beltway sorts especially, appears to harbor a deep dislike of Newt Gingrich. They can’t believe he is currently the frontrunner for the Republican nomination and are doing everything in their power to enlighten the great unwashed about the multiple inadequacies of this man and knock some sense into them (us) before it is too late."

I remember all the contention going on here when Harriet Miers was selected by Pres. George W. Bush to become Supreme Court Justice. I pretty much stayed out of the heated arguments going on BUT in the end it all worked out when Bush withdrew Miers' name and nominated Samuel Alito.Will something similar happen next year in the selection of the next GOP Presidential candidate? Perhaps IF the convention is deadlocked. For the past few months we've had new heros who have faded to be replaced by even newer heros who have also faded. EVERY candidate proposed seems to have...

by Sheri UrbanReal FeministRepublican presidential candidate Herman Cain is planning a "major announcement" for tomorrow in Atlanta. After the latest "accuser" - yet another walking car wreck - alleged a 13-year affair with Cain (which he has denied), the "embattled" candidate said he would be conferring with his wife "face-to-face" in Georgia, before deciding whether or not to continue his campaign. It has been widely speculated by the media that Cain's announcement will be to end his run. I have one thing to say to this: "NUTS!" Why the hell should he drop out? There hasn't been anything proven against...

Special to South Florida Times MIAMI — Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain swept through South Florida last week with an early morning stop in Sweetwater. At the Claude and Mildred Pepper Center there, Cain was serenaded to strands of the enduring Cuban patriotic song Guantanamera and was applauded by senior citizens who said they admired el negro – the black man. Soon after, Cain’s red campaign bus took him to Versailles Cuban Restaurant in Little Havana, where throngs of supporters from Cuba’s exile community had waited nearly two hours for his arrival. “Hola, hola, hola, hola,” Cain greeted the cheering...

EL UNIVERSAL, (CARACAS, VENEZUELA) Original in Spanish "ESTADOS UNIDOS: Gingrich favorece políticas migratorias más humanas" ... Candidato republicano se pronuncia a favor de la inmigración" Wednesday November 23, 2011 24:08 ("FREEPRANSLATION" TO ENGLISH): "Washington, D.C. - Newt Gingrich, the newest candidate in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, has run the risk of scaring the conservatives saying that favors the establishment of legal channels for illegal immigrants who have behaved peacefully, within the law paid their taxes and lived in the U.S. for many years. During a televised debate on Tuesday night, former House of Representatives Speaker said...

On Friday night, Herman Cain was a fly and David Letterman was the spider cordially inviting Cain to "step into my parlor." Didn't Cain or any of his advisors see the potential for disaster in Cain appearing on Letterman's show? Didn't anybody say, "Herman, don't go in there! It's a trap!"? I desperately don't want to be seen as one of those just itching for clear proof that Herman Cain's candidacy is over. But it's hard to have watched Cain on Letterman and not come to the conclusion that neither Cain nor his advisors have sufficiently good judgment for him...

The real cause of the housing bubble and collapse is very simple: An Executive Order by Bill Clinton and enthusiastically championed by George Bush, 13166, forced banks to make bad loans or no loans at all. And Newt Gingrich was championing putting an end to EO 13166 years before the collapse of the banking industry. In the late 1990s, a grand compromise was reached between President Clinton and Senate Banking Chairman Phil Gramm. Long ago, government types decided that home ownership was the key to fiscal stability, but too many blacks didn't qualify for loans. The banking industry argued that...

TRENTON, N.J.—The first woman known to have filed a sexual harassment claim against GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain while he ran a trade group shows no interest in revealing her identity or publicly discussing her accusations against the Georgia businessman. The woman, who works for one of New Jersey's largest lobbying firms, has deliberately made herself scarce. ----break--- The firm's founder, who didn't return calls from the AP seeking comment, has close ties to Gov. Chris Christie, who threw his support to Mitt Romney after deciding against entering the GOP presidential campaign himself. Another partner helped Romney in his 2008...

I have to admit that when I saw the headline â€śThe Ugliness Started with Borkâ€ť over an op-ed column by Joe Nocera in The New York Times, I reckoned it would be yet another chapter in the long-running left-liberal campaign to demonize the great jurist Robert H. Bork. I was wrong. Today â€” October 23 â€” is the 24th anniversary of the Senateâ€™s shameful vote against Borkâ€™s nomination to the Supreme Court. Nocera wrote, if not to apologize, exactly, then at least to acknowledge that the poisonous campaign to discredit Bork â€” unprecedented in its nastiness â€” was â€śthe beginning...

In a stinging comparison that is sure to leave a mark, on Sunday’s This Week With Christiane Amanpour, George Will said the rise of Herman Cain had a lot to do with Republicans coming to the realization that Mitt Romney is their Michael Dukakis. “A technocratic Massachusetts governor running on competence, not ideology,” Will observed.